Wave Issue 86

First...

So now that the Google Update is over, how are you feeling?

I definitely had my ups and downs. So now it's time to figure out what might be the issues that Google hit.

One site that I've tested and tried a number of a things on, I did a 301 redirect to a new domain. There have been cases where a 301 to a different domain have helped sites, so I'll be interested to see if anything helps with this site.

Other than that, let's get on to the content this week. There's more content than usual this week due to the Core Update.

Niche Creators

Niche Creators - niche surfer

This week's two Niche Creators are very active in sharing their knowledge. They share their journey on Twitter and their blogs through their case studies and loads of tips.

Check out their interviews:

This week, we have Paul from LowFruits, a SaaS to scour the SERPs for keywords that can help you rank quickly. Paul has built many niche sites himself and that's what drove him to create the popular LowFruits to find low-competition keywords.

Income Reports

May 2022 Income Reports

These are the income reports I saw for May 2022.

Passive Income Unlocked - $62,213
Carl Broadbent - $25,731
Mike Donovan - $21,334
Tortoise Cash Flow - $2,619.76
Jasper Pieterse - $2,314.12
XiaoMing - $1,958

SEO

The May 2022 core update rollout is now complete.

The Google Core Update is now complete! Hope you made out!

There are still some rumblings that rankings are still changing for some.

If you want a good guide of how to analyze what's happened with your site and how you can recover, I retweeted Gael Breton's thread on Twitter (there's a video mentioned later on this topic from them). That's basically the same process that I do to look at how the Update affected me.

Google May 2022 Core Update: Winners, Losers & Analysis

Google's May 2022 core update is complete. Learn which sites saw the greatest changes in visibility and the insider insights this latest core update offers.

It's still too early for a full analysis, but this has great tables to see which sites won and lost in this latest update.

Can improving freshness signals in titles benefit SEO?

SearchPilot's A/B test this week was whether there'd be any organic traffic impact from changing the month and year (e.g., June 2022) in the article title to "Updated Daily."

Surprisingly, their Twitter followers were evenly split between "Positive" impact and "No detectable impact."

Not surprisingly, the results had a Positive impact. If you think about it, if you were looking for a listing in the SERPs, wouldn't you rather click on one that said the listing was updated daily?

Don't go putting "Updated Daily" in your titles now. It's only if it makes sense. The client that SearchPilot tested this title change with actually does update their listings daily.

PROOF You Can Win Your Featured Snippets Back

Chris from Niche Safari lost all his featured snippets in the November 2021 Core Update, but has gotten them back in this latest May 2022 Update.

Take a look at his video and what he did...(spoiler alert -> nothing).

This just goes to show that Google does a lot of things that don't make sense.

5 Websites That Got Hit by the May 2022 Core Algorithm Update - Onely Blog

Every Core Algorithm Update has winners and losers. These 5 websites lost big time, although each website lost for a different reason.

Duolingo.com
DesignMyNight.com
DualDiagnosis.org
Siteslike.com
Aramanatural.es

Google’s May 2022 Core Update: What To Do Next

3 words that can send a shiver down even the most veteran marketer's spine: Google Algorithm Update.

And once again Google has shaken up the SERPs, destroying sites in its wake. So what do you do if you're hit?

In this show, Mark and Gael attempt to make sense of it all and provide a path forward amid the dismay.

Google Announces their update
Is something going on with Featured Snippets?
Was AI targeted?
How long should you wait to take action?
What to look for after an update?
How to approach fixing a hit?
The risk of complacency
Make those improvements!

My early theory about the May 2022 Google Broad Core Update

Jon Dykstra shares his thoughts on what this Google Update was all about (hint: AI content).

Not sharing this because I agree with everything he's saying, but because it's a thought out there. There are lots of thoughts out there, so take it with a grain of salt.

Content

How to Earn Topical Authority in 2022 and Beyond

Zoe at Moz takes a deep dive into topical authority: what it is, how to earn it, and, importantly, how to strategically develop topical relevance. She covers these steps on the way to building topical authority:

Research your topic
Create pillars and clusters
Map keywords to pillars using SERP analysis
Write high-quality, well-researched content
Share it with your audience

What Is Interactive Content? 12 Examples Worth the Effort

Ross Hudgens of Siege Media discusses Interactive Content and whether you should think about including them in your articles.

Look at that decision flowchart. It doesn't get any easier!

He includes 12 great examples. I really like these calculators, generators, quizzes, and other ways to get users to stay on your page. If you're in a niche that can get an edge from your competitors with something like this, definitely do it.

Link Building

5 Types Of Directory Backlinks (+ How To Build Them in 2022 )

This article from Loganix covers what directory backlinks are and why they're important.

General directories
Business listings
Local citations
Paid directories
Niche directories

If I'm trying to build a brand and want to create a 'business' out of the niche site, I'll usually get directory backlinks. These are cheap too, backlinks too. Usually $1 or less depending on who you go with and how many you order.

The services will go to different directories and set up an account for you. They'll give you the login information too in case you need to change anything in the future.

In Defense of Spam Score and the Concept of a Toxic Link

Google has suggested for a while now that bad links won’t have a negative impact on your site. Instead, the algorithm will supposedly be smart enough to withhold any positive benefit from such a link.

John Mueller tweeted that people should ignore "toxic links" because it's something made up by SEO tools. Ahrefs' Tim Soulo agreed and said that's why they didn't include it in Ahrefs.

Tom Capper of Moz responds in this article by discussing the benefits of tracking a metric like Spam Score.

For me, I agree that you shouldn't pay attention to any spam score generated, but the backlinks you have should be something to think about because it can affect your site.

But I disagree that there is no such thing as toxic links. Maybe they're playing at semantics here? What if you just call them bad links? Would the answer be different.

IF there was no such thing as toxic links, then there'd be no manual actions by Google for bad/artificial/unnatural links. Those links would just be ignored.
IF Google just ignored toxic links, PBN links would be much more popular because there's no downside. They would only ever be ignored or even help your site because Google doesn't recognize it as a PBN link.

I Tried My First Link Building Service. Here's How it Went...

Ricky from Income School tried out a link building service for the first time ever! They used Niche Website Builder's HARO service.

Check this video out if you're interested in trying out the HARO service out yourself.

Education

AMA from one of the AI content site creators

One of the creators of those AI content sites with 1000s of posts with PAA question/answer content started a reddit AMA thread.

Some interesting things he notes to start out:

Last week's update boosted black hat PAA sites, according to what people I know are saying and my experiences. Google is doing a great job as always 😎

I haven't received a DMCA request yet. Maybe because I'm linking back to the originals and paraphrasing them? Idk.

I don't make these sites for ad revenue. I'm creating them to do what I call "fishing for keywords."

His #1 goes with what I had said one of the things the update was targeting was finding AI content sites. But there were/are a lot of false positives still, as well as misses.

I just don't think it's possible for Google to find all AI sites, as well as avoid hitting genuine sites. The only way is for Google to purchase all the AI content generators out there and use their AI algos to find content/sites.

How Much Is a Domain Worth? Insights, Valuation, FAQs

Jeffrey Gabriel does a deep-dive into how to determine how much a domain is worth, valuation factors, and FAQs.

He sold sex.com in 2010 and it was a Guinness World Record for the most expensive domain for quite some time. He might know a thing or two.

He looks at the factors of what makes a domain valuable and how to appraise them:

Brandability
Trendy Topic
Domain Extensions
Name Length
Domain History

How to Create an SEO-Friendly Website: The Complete Checklist

Mateusz Makosiewicz has a nice checklist of things to do when starting a new site. It's great for beginners and for those who have built sites before too.

I just built put up a new website and I went through the checklist myself on it to make sure I didn't miss anything.

I have everything in my head, but it's also nice to have a checklist to refer to. I realized I forgot to add something to my robots.txt after checking it!

Sneaky niche & keyword trick - Miles Beckler

Miles Beckler shows how to find sites that are on Mediavine and AdThrive by searching for specific lines of text in disclosure statements.

For Mediavine: intext:Mediavine Programmatic Advertising (Ver 1.1) For Adthrive: intext:This Site is affiliated with CMI Marketing

Get on that competitor research!

Onsite SEO Checklist: Onpage Guide for Google in 2022

Want better rankings and more organic search traffic to your website? Matt Diggity gives his Onsite SEO Checklist to find out EVERYTHING you need to know to get your site ranking #1 on Google...

Keyword Research Checklist
Preparation Checklist
Technical SEO Checklist
Three Kings Checklist
Heading Structure Checklist
Content Checklist
Entity Optimization Checklist
EAT Checklist
Schema Checklist
Page Load Checklist
Mobile Friendly Checklist
Internal Links Checklist
Outbound Links Checklist
Monetization Chechlist

News

Replays - Building Empires by Building Empires

Watch replays of the Building Empires: Website Investing virtual event run by Niche Website Builders.

Lots of great talks in there, so definitely check them out.

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Join the Niche Surfer Community

Be sure to also join others riding the passive income wave in the Niche Surfer Discord group.

Have questions? Reply or email me at [email protected]. I’d love to know what you think and if you have any ideas.

I’d also appreciate it if you shared it with fellow niche surfers.

Have a great week taking your niche sites to another level!